Edmonton Expo 2017: Rock and roleplaying amid endless merch

A chat with William Shatner, a Saturday night Gene Simmons concert and an entire shopping centre’s weight in merch — make way for the sixth annual Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo, into which you can slip for as little as $20, dressed as Darth Vader, a dinosaur or a happy dad dragging the munchkins around.

The very idea of the three-day pop culture fair starting Friday at the aptly named Edmonton Expo Centre is a fangirl’s dream, as organizer Lindsay Thomas tells it.

Having triumphed over bullying in her teen years for her Star Trek fixation, she’s now the recognizable face of Emily Expo on all the banners, and clearly gets the sense of belonging found in the big halls amid the comic artists, tattoo stations and stand-up videogames.

While being an otaku — a mega-fan — has massively mainstreamed in the last decade, “The first time I went to one of these conventions, it felt to me like I had finally found my tribe,” Thomas states. “I don’t know what teenagers were doing when I was one, because I was always reading.

“But I walked into this show and realized there’s a whole community of people interested in what I was.”

The reasons people attend are as wide-ranging as Klingon forehead topography, but they do so in the tens of thousands every year — here and at the sister festivals in Calgary and Saskatoon.

Many are dressed in elaborate getups that take months to build, some terrifying, some sexy — some strangely both. “For other people there’s that process of exploration. If they’re just starting to get into science fiction, it’s a great place to find new things. You also get people who are there for the celebrities and nothing else.”

“I feel like I was those kids,” Thomas laughs, a big fan of the ’80s-set horror series with the cool electro soundtrack.

She also stresses Eugene Brave Rock. “I love that he’s Albertan. And of course he’s in Wonder Woman and Hell on Wheels. He does stunt work. He’s going to be a very interesting person to hear from.”

Plus, “I cannot speak highly enough of John Rhys-Davies. He’s just the warm, adorable, hilarious, old guy that everybody loves to be around. He’s got this huge personality — but also this profound, quiet wisdom, too. Even if you haven’t seen Raiders or Lord of the Rings or Sliders, he’s so worthwhile to see.”

Calgary’s Expo, with twice the attendees to help sweeten the pot, plus the reality of more direct flights, has seen phenomenal reunions in the past, including the primary casts of Aliens and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Emily Expo, aka Lindsay ThomasFish Griwkowsky /
Postmedia

“No promises, it is not going to happen,” Thomas laughs, “but I would love to bring the cast of The Expendables.

“We do have our bucket list, every year. And we try for almost anyone you can think of, trust me.”

So many of us got to meet her before she died thanks to Expo. “You always have that one friend who’s like, ‘Why would you mourn a celebrity, you don’t even know them?’ ” Thomas says.

“But that’s a lack of understanding how much art, film, media, contemporary culture affects people’s lives, and Carrie in particular was such a vocal supporter of people struggling with mental illness, open with her own issues.

“She was a gem, so eccentric and unapologetically herself.”

You could say that about Edmonton Expo without exaggerating, and “Emily Expo” sums it up. “Our focus has been, rather than making it bigger, we really want to make it better.”

***

One last footnote to alleviate confusion over some prohibited shoe-lift lengths in homemade costumes — not for regular heel lengths in store-bought footwear, as some thought. The new rules have been dismissed until Expo consults with the cosplay community after the festival is over.

“We’re worried about ending up with broken bones, broken necks,” says Thomas. “But we’ll figure it out going forward. So it’s business as usual.”

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